Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
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'Berberis johannis' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
A deciduous shrub to 7 ft high, erect in some forms but in others of spreading habit. Stems slender and glabrous, with short and thin three-parted spines. Leaves less than 1 in. long, obovate and tapering to a short petiole, dull green above and greyish beneath, margins entire or with a few spines. Flowers borne in May in umbels or condensed racemes of three to seven flowers, the peduncle and individual flower-stalks coloured red. Berries bright red, narrow, with a waist near the middle and somewhat bent above it. Bot. Mag., n.s., t. 57.
Native of S.E. Tibet; introduced by Kingdon Ward in 1924 (KW 5936) from Tumbatse, where he collected the famous Primula florindae in the same autumn. It is a vigorous and hardy shrub, which grows quickly from seed and is very decorative in late autumn. It has been confused with B. gyalaica (q.v.).